HAARLEM, Netherlands — The team that hadn’t won yet just beat the best team in the field. Czechia, 0-2 and searching, blanked No. 2 Chinese Taipei 1-0 on Monday afternoon at Pim Mulier Stadion — a combined three-hit shutout fronted by starter Jan Novák, who retired the first eleven hitters he faced and never let Taipei breathe.
Chinese Taipei enters as the highest-ranked team in the field, sitting No. 2 in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s World Rankings. The Netherlands (No. 10), Italy (No. 14), Czechia (No. 16) and Curaçao (No. 29) round out the bracket. None of that mattered for nine innings.
Novák Sets the Tone
Novák was in command from the first pitch, retiring his first eleven batters before Taipei found a baserunner. He finished six scoreless innings on just three hits, walking one and striking out three — efficient as it gets, 60 of his 85 pitches for strikes. Vojtěch Ventruba did the rest, slamming the door with three hitless innings and three strikeouts for the save. Between them, Taipei never advanced a runner past second base.
The Only Run They Needed
Czechia struck first and last in the top of the sixth. Matěj Vlach singled to center, and Šimon Blažek followed by cracking an RBI double into the right-center gap, just beyond the reach of a diving Hsiao-Yun Chen, to bring Vlach home with the game’s lone run. One swing was the difference.
Taipei Goes Quiet
For a lineup that hung 15 on the Netherlands a day earlier wait — that was the other way around; Taipei had been on the wrong end of that one — the bats stayed cold here. Chinese Taipei managed three singles, ran into outs on the bases (a caught stealing and a double play), and never mounted a real threat.
Lin Yi-Wei pitched well enough to win most days, going seven innings on seven hits and a lone run, but Novák and Ventruba were simply better. Taipei falls to 1-1; Czechia, the EK 2025 bronze medalists, finally break through at 1-2.
